I’ve done commercials on my podcast for a nurse who, as a sideline business, makes masks. She is a pediatric oncology nurse and many of her patients have lost their hair from the cancer treatments. She started by making head bands and head coverings for her young patients. Family members of patients, as well as other hospital nurses, liked them and she made head coverings for them as well.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, she added face coverings to her repertoire. They are wonderful masks – for health care workers and everyone during the pandemic. All of are made from recycled materials, which are fabric found on clothing at resale shops. She markets her products as Move Me Brightly.

I, for one, have worn a mask whenever I’ve left the house during this pandemic. I was of the believe that it was the smart, safe thing to do. And I have several of the Move Me Brightly masks to chose from.

But this week I had an epiphany.

I’ve been listening to all of the people who have said that wearing a mask is a personal choice. And that it is a matter of personal freedom.

After considerable thought, I now agree. Mask wearing is indeed a personal choice. Not wearing a mask is an exercise of personal freedom. So, from now on, I will NOT wear a mask in public.

I have found this already to be exhilarating. Suddenly I am no longer concerned with personal obligation. I am no longer concerned with responsibility. Instead I only have to be concerned with my own personal freedom

And I am going to carry this one step further.

I decided, that for now on, I will no longer pay any attention to traffic lights!

Green light, yellow light, red light – it doesn’t matter. Whenever I reach an intersection, I will decide whether to go or to stop. It will be my personal choice. I will be exercising my personal freedom. No one is going to tell me that I have to stop at a red light. This is America, and I have the freedom to choose.

I recognize that this might lead to a crash. I might go through an intersection, though facing a red light. And thus crash into a car traveling perpendicular to me, who was facing a green light

The chances of that happening may be remote, and even more remote that I may get hurt. But that is the risk I can take, and take personal responsibility for that choice.

I also recognize that someone else may be injured in such a crash. But what are the odds? 1 of 5? 1 of 10? 1 out of every 20 times I go through a red light? Pretty remote.

And what are the chances that one of those other people are killed in the crash? Even more remote – certainly not enough for me to limit my personal freedom.

And think about who I might crash into? It could be someone of any age. There is a reasonable chance that if, in the remote chance I crashed into someone, and in the even remote chance that I killed someone in the crash, the person I killed would be an old person.

If I killed an old person, in the exercise of my personal freedom, it would not be that big of deal. An old person, after all, would not have live too many more years anyway. The risk of me hitting and killing an old person is not enough for me to limit my personal freedom.

And even if not an old person, the chances pretty good that it would be someone with some sort of health issue. Perhaps someone who is obese, or has diabetes, or high blood pressure. Or perhaps someone suffering from cancer – even if in early stages, and maybe doesn’t even know it yet. Or perhaps someone who smokes, or who drinks heavily, or takes too many opiods.

These type of people are at a high risk of dying anyway. It wouldn’t be too much of a tragedy of I crashed into them in the highway. If the crash caused their death, the death would only be a bit premature

It’s possible that I would crash into a vehicle with a child, or hit a pedestrian child. But what are the odds of that? Children are pretty resilient anyway.

Perhaps the only real risk is that I could crash into a healthy adult. But a healthy adult could likely get out of the way, and a healthy adult would likely survive a car crash.

So frankly I don’t see much of a downside to this. I don’t see much of a reason for me to limit my personal freedom by stopping for red lights

And that is my new mantra

• No more masks
• And no more red lights

Author’s Note:

If you know me, you know that this was my satirical response to the many brainless people out there who refuse to wear a mask, and who think their personal freedom is more important than personal responsibility.

It is also my satirical response to the politicians out there who precious little brains between their ears. My father had a word he applied to such people – it was “shit for brains”. That may look like three words to you, but he would pronounce it as if it were one word with three syllables. And he would use it as a noun (as in “He is shitforbrains”) or a pronoun (as in “Shitforbrains is babbling again”.)

My father died before this pandemic, but he would certainly apply this word to people anyone maskless he might meet – as in “Hey shitforbrains, wear a mask!”

(Elderly Crossing sign photograph by Linda McDonnell, taken in County Fermanagh.)